Gravity fed bins for dispensing bulk materials are used to dispense a wide variety of materials having a range of sizes and aggregate make-ups as diverse as hardware components, e.g., nuts and bolts, to food, e.g., pastas, cereals, nuts, coffee (either beans or ground), dried soup mixes, candies, spices, and the like. Generally, the bins are comprised of enclosures having an inlet at an upper end utilized to fill a cavity, an outlet or chute at its lower end utilized to dispense the material, and a flow control device located between the upper and lower openings for controlling the amount of material being dispensed during the time the control device is actuated. In operation, as the material is being dispensed, gravity pulls the remaining material in the cavity towards the lower end to replace the dispensed material. These types of bins generally include a downwardly angled or curving inner wall that forms a slide to channel the dispensed materials into a receptacle adjacent the outlet. Examples of prior art gravity fed bins can be found in the above-mentioned U.S. Patents to Elmore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,866 to Loew, NewLeaf Designs' Vita-Bin® gravity bin product, and BestBins Corporation's gravity bins product.
Gravity fed bins offer a multitude of advantages compared to other dispensing means, such as scoop bins, including convenience, ease of use and hygiene. Even so, gravity fed bins are not suited for all types of materials, thus preventing them from being more widely adopted. Specifically, gravity fed dispensers are not generally well suited for dispensing sticky products, such as dried fruits and gummy candies or bulk materials that tend to bridge over the dispensing area, such as ground foods and wrapped candies, for example.
Heretofore, the most practical means for dispensing such difficult to dispense product was to employ a bulk food dispenser generally known as a “scoop bin.” As the name suggests, a scoop bin typically comprises a plastic bin, often having a hinged lid that is lifted to provide the consumer access to the stored contents. A hand scoop is then employed to gather the bulk product for placement into a container. While scoop bins are effective for dispensing a wider variety of product than a gravity type dispenser, they suffer from several major disadvantages, particularly in the area of hygiene, because of the contamination that can take place in these types of dispensers. Sources of contamination include germs that may be attached to the scoop or scoop handle being transferred to the stored product during dispensing or from external debris falling into the bin cavity when the bin's lid is lifted. Lastly, since the nature of scoop bins requires their openings to be located closer to the floor for access reasons, they are generally within the reach of children and others who are not hesitant to reach into the unsecured bins with potentially unclean hands in order to extract a sample, or even play with the bin contents.
Attempts have been made to address one or more of these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,577 to Vona shows bins for displaying such things as buns wherein the bins include a sneeze shield and a lower cleaning tray. U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,991 to Johnson shows a relatively hygienic system incorporating a rake with an externally accessible handle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,578 to Radek et al., shows another such rake system, as does U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,494 to Ellis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,609 to Morse et al. shows yet another variation, in which an auger is used to draw material out of a hopper or receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,604 to Kern et al. shows a relatively hygienic system that uses a wiping paddle arrangement and flexible chute walls to accommodate sticky foods. Unfortunately, each of these attempts have failed to become widely used because of a number of shortcomings, including difficulty in use and cleaning, which renders them impractical for their intended purpose.
There remains a need for a reliable bulk product dispenser that can be easily cleaned, whose contents are not easily accessible nor prone to external contamination, that can accommodate a wide variety of product shapes and is suitable for dispensing product portions that tend to clump or otherwise stick together and resist gravity-fed flow.